Nice words but banks have wriggle room

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Customer-friendly promises from banks are coming thick and fast. Royal Bank of Scotland’s offer of a six-month moratorium on repossessions on Monday was followed by Lloyds TSB’s small business charter yesterday.

While welcome, they will not greatly improve the treatment of most customers. RBS would rarely start trying to seize defaulters’ homes in less than six months, anyway. The Lloyds’ promise to pass on base rate cuts in full to business overdraft customers is no more than what it is contractually obliged to do in most cases.

It suits both the bankers and their new political masters that banks are